Manufacture of products made of leather requires splitting pieces of leather to reduce the thickness of the pieces of leather before they can be used in the production of leather products.
In the prior art methods for splitting leather to reduce its thickness, pieces of leather are fed between a pair of horizontal rollers or calendar rolls. The rollers clampingly engage the upper and lower surfaces of the leather to hold that portion of the leather in place. A horizontally extending blade engages the leading edge of the piece of leather held between the rollers and forms a horizontal cut in the leather. The lower layer can be removed leaving a top layer for use in the manufacturing operation. The horizontally extending blade can comprise a flexible endless band with the blade moving across the leading edge or face of the leather and in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the leather between the rollers.
One of the problems with such prior art arrangements is that the continuous moving blades or bands require replacement at frequent intervals. This results in substantial cost for replacement of the blades and down time of the leather splitting machines.
Another problem with the prior art apparatus is that when the blades become dull or damaged, they can cause an increased generation of scrap and can result in waste of a great deal of leather.
Attention is directed to the Cannon et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,535, issued June 14, 1977; the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,771, issued Feb. 19, 1985; IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Volume 20, No. 11B, April 1978, pages 4939-4940 and IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 22, No. 6, November 1979, pages 2463-2464.
Attention is further directed to the Houldcroft U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,814, issued Oct. 12, 1971; the Ehlesheid et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,945, issued Sept. 20, 1977; and the Stemmler et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,894, issued July 10, 1979.